Franklin Bridal Ball

Last night was The Franklin Bridal Ball. I was there to see what was up and catch any trends I could. As you can see I was in great company. Those are two really good friends of the Dish, Vicki Sanders of Branching Out Event Florists and Ashley King-Carter creator of Ashley’s Bride Guide. Yes, we apparently all got the memo: Green is tonight’s color!

There were many beautiful things there but I was inspired by some of the tabletops and centerpieces. It seems that ‘Shiny” is in!

I'll have more dish on the people and things for last night in the days to come. Stay tuned.

Get Married

I just got back from a fabulous conference in Florida with some of the top trend setters in the industry. Over the next few days I want to go indepth on some of the people and products I ran across. So let’s get started.

I rode in from the airport with the darling Stacie Francombe, CEO of Get Married. Stacie and I have met on other occasions but this trip gave us a chance to really connect. If you aren’t familiar with GetMarried.com you should be. What a great site.

Get Married is supported on the air waves with a daily TV show on Lifetime at 7:30 AM, EDT. TIVO it or better yet just watch it on line. I could spent hours watching the archived goodie on GM.

My favorite things on the site are the video quick tips. I could literally spend hours. The videos are beautifully done and not just fluff. The information is cutting edge and detailed. Click on the Planning tab and select Expert Advice from the drop down. Get comfortable, you will want to stay for a while. The Quick Tips are as billed, quick; there are just so many great ones that you will keep on watching. Yes, sadly I have found one more habit to consume my time. At least this is a good one.

Tomorrow for Flower Friday I’ll share what the amazing Preston Bailey had to say.

Centerpieces for a Casual Wedding

Last weekend was busy, busy. I wanted to share with you some shots from Friday night’s rehearsal dinner.

The goal was to have a casual country feel to the event. It was held in a beautiful location, the carriage house at Belle Meade Plantation. I know you wouldn’t think that using burlap for the table clothes would work for anything but in this setting it was spot on. Combined with the black chairs and black napkins it looked easy yet elegant. What do you think?

Vicki at Branching Out, along with the mother of the groom gathered a massive assortment of blue glass bottles and rustic lanterns. The vases were filled with simple individual stems to evoke a very ‘wildflower’ look and the lanterns withstood the strong breezes to add a bit of candle light. It was just perfect.

I particularly liked the use of mason jars for water glasses. I completed the look to give everyone a casual vibe to enjoy the late spring evening before the more formal events of the next day.

Wedding Wire Rocks

Like you I am always on the hunt for great planning tools and wedding websites. In all honesty, I have to say that I don’t check out every new wedding-centric site that pops up. Most of them are just lame excuses for sucking advertising dollars off wedding vendors. They have a list of vendors, a few out of date articles on planning and little else.

Today I ran across one that is worth its pixels and is about to get even better. Wedding Wire is a relative newcomer to the game; launched in June of 2007 it has just been scarfed up by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Wedding Wire was created by a team of entrepreneurs including 2 founding members of Blackboard. This is not some lame site put together by a former bride to be or a former magazine ad sales person. These creators have some serious internet chops. As proof, take a look at how functional the tools they have created for brides are. In addition to wedding websites, budget tools and timeline planners they also have the coolest drag and drop seating chart tool.

The galleries look to be fairly large and are searchable by color as well as item. So if you search “purple” you will get everything, bouquets, décor, invitation, favors or anything else in purple. The events page is searchable by zipcode and event type. If you are looking for all the upcoming bridal or trunk shows in your area this is the place to look. The communities look a little thin still but I’m sure that will come with time.

With the additional resources available to them now that MSLO owns 40% of the company you can bet that the content will be just as top notch. If you love Martha Stewart Weddings, then this is definitely the wedding planning website for you.

This one really has me excited.

Puzzle Guest Book

I saw the cutest idea for an out of the ordinary guest book last weekend. It was a large wooden jigsaw puzzle.

What they had done was create a collage of pictures of the couple as they grew up and of their life together. The collage was decoupaged onto a ¼ inch thick board which was then cut into a jigsaw puzzle. Are you with me so far? Good.

At the wedding guests were asked to take a puzzle piece and sign the back with a Sharpie. Cool, no?

The tag next to it read in part, “You are all an important “piece” of our lives and together you have helped shape the people we are today.”

The couple plan to put it in a floating frame after the wedding so they can view both sides. What a lovely, personal keepsake from such an important day.

Sorry about the pictures. Silly me worked a wedding and forgot my camera. Duh. I have sent a note to the photographer to get a better image and as soon as I get it I will update this post.

My Favorite Bouquet. Ever.

I have always thought that flowers in and off themselves are works of art. Sometimes arrangements and bouquets can get a bit too contrived and you miss the independent beauty of individual blooms. Just to give you an idea, this is the image I have on my desk top.

Over the last few days I have been working with images for a website I am building and ran across this bouquet. Oh my. I am pretty sure that this composite bouquet has to be my favorite bouquet ever. In this creation, Vicki Sanders of Branching Out Event Florists has captured the intrinsic beauty of a Stargazer Lily and pushed it to the limit.

A word of warning: each one of those petals is individually wired and taped. Then the ‘bloom” is composed out of the petals. The petals of lilies aren’t the hardiest little buggers, so you always have to make extra in case a petal becomes damaged in construction. Having said that; don’t expect a bouquet like that to be a low cost option. It certainly makes a statement though. Can you just imagine how fabulous it smells. Ahhhhhhh.

Top photo by Christine. Bouquet photo copyright David Wright Photography.

Live Journal

Is anyone else out there a fan of the wedding planning group on Live Journal? Well I am. This has to be the nicest most helpful bunch of brides on the net, none of the snarky juvenile garbage that you find in some of the other wedding communities. If you have ventured into the communities at the Knot.com then you know what I mean.

You can follow them as they plan their weddings right along with you. The comments are almost always both amazingly helpful and supportive. You may only post or add comments if you are a member of the community. It’s open to all and you can join here.

The tag cloud for this group is huge; I mean there must be over a thousand* tags in it. It runs nearly the entire length of the first page of the archive. So if you can’t find something close to what you are wanting to know you must be looking for something really off the wall. I didn’t find a search feature though. If you know where there is one, let me know. *Ok so I’m a geek. I just ran a word count on the tag cloud and it’s only 996.

There are even links to other more specific communities like Bridal Weight Loss Support and Wedding Makeup.

Whether you are a bride or a wedding professional this is a must read. Just keep it nice.

Note to Brides

I had a wonderful time last week connecting with a group of fellow wedding professionals. As always, the conversation turned to work and you my dear brides were high on the agenda.

My friend Peter, denizen of all things rental, got off on a riff about phone messages.

“Please Christine” he said “remind them to leave me more then their first name and a convoluted message about their event”

Peter is right. It used to happen to me all the time. I used to get messages like this.

“Hi Christine. This is Sarah and I wanted to let you know that we wanted the first tier to have the raspberry filling on the lower and uppers spaces and the orange/apricot in the middle space and please make the top tier in chocolate only but if you could put a bit of amaretto in the soak the would be perfect.”

Great. No problem. Be happy to oblige. But which freakin’ Sarah are you and when are you getting married???? Yes I know, just use caller ID to call her back. Great plan if I knew what time she called. I can get a bunch of calls in one day and isolating the right one can be a trick.

As much as we like you to feel that you are the only bride we have, it simply isn’t true. If you are calling your wedding planner you can probably get away with the above message, but any other vendor is likely to have multiple wedding on any given weekend. Add to that the reality that we will be working with a bride for sometimes up to a year and you can see that we are often juggling 50 or more brides at one time.

Any time you must leave a message on voice mail for one of your vendors, please help them out by leaving a last name and a WEDDING DATE. Most of us file things by wedding date so that will help a lot. Also leave your last name. I clearly remember one weekend that I had three Ashleys. Unbelievably two of their cakes were almost the same. It tended to get a bit confusing.

We want to do the best job possible for every one of our brides, sometimes a bit of clarity helps.

Goodies from Around the Blogosphere

I have been completely swamped for the last week and just today have gotten a chance to catch up on my blog reading. As usual I found some wonderful things to show you. So let’s get to it.

First up flowers:

Kristin Newman Designs Not a blog but still a worthy stop as you surf for ideas for your wedding décor. Kirstin is an event coordinator in Charleston, South Carolina. Her website has enough photos to keep you delighted and inspired for hours.

Michelle Rago Ltd Michelle is an event designer and florist on West 28^th, in New York. I was lucky enough to find her blog thanks to a couple of the blogs in my reader (see the list at the right). Sorry that I don’t remember which one, like I said last week was crazy. If whoever originally posted about Michelle would leave their link in the comments I would be grateful. Thanks to Michelle for all the inspiration. That is her creation an the left. Very cool.

Oh Happy Day! Wants you to bring the love back for carnations.

On to DIY

Abby Larson’s blog, Style Me Pretty always comes up with marvelous ideas for DIY. You may remember a while back she held a contest to submit your DIY. You can see the entries here. This week she is showcasing some DIY design idea from Matthew Mead. Here, here and here.

Inspiration

Oh Happy Blog some great ideas for a chic modern wedding inspired by all things Ikea.

Finally, Liene is running a quick two question survey on her blog, Blue Orchid Designs. Take a moment and show a fellow blogger the love. Besides, I am dying to see the results

Tigerlilly Speaks!

Friend of the Dish, Mandy Greenan, has started a blog. You may recall, Mandy is the designer behind Tigerlilly. She is renowned for her bridal jewelry and accessories. Her real masterpieces are the convertible tiaras she creates; tiara one day and choker the next.

Tigerlilly has graced the runways at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week as well as the pages of Modern Bride, Elegant Bride and the Knot Magazine just to name a few. They have even dressed me on a more than a few occasions.

Mandy’s blog is brand new and is already full of interesting ideas for wedding hair. She also has some insider tips on how to keep these beautiful hair toys in place as you dance the night away.

Pop on over and tell Mandy I said “Hi.”

Always A Bridesmaid…

It’s about time! Everyone knows that a wedding is all about the bride but what about the supporting cast? There is an overload of information for brides on the web but not so much for the lovely ladies that have to deal with her. Bridesmaid Essentials.com launched yesterday to fill the gap in information.

Since it is a brand new site the communities aren’t packed yet but some of the things they are offering look like they might take off. If you think about it the average wedding has 5 bridesmaids and only one bride, right? If you get all of them together you should have a pretty big community with a lot in common (think Frankenbrides and ugly dresses).

I love the idea of their Flip That Dress page. List your used bridesmaids dress or pick up one that you might be able to use. How great would it be if you could get the entire wedding party to list theirs together, you might just save some other group of maids a few $$$ and a bunch of time. I spied a 2 piece Vera Wang maids gown for $60. That’s a bargain.

The one thing I would add is a page on how to remodel bridesmaid’s dresses so you really could rewear them. Once again, if you can get input from this potentially large community you could do some real damage to that corner of our closets filled with past gowns. Ya think??

Pass this site on to all the lovely ladies that are your supporting cast to make their live just a little brighter today.

They will thank you for it.

Laser Cut Stationery

A while back I stumbled on the amazing cupcake wrappers at Paper Orchid Stationery and I finally had time to explore some of their other products. LOVE THEM!

Paper Orchid is the leading pioneer in laser cut technology. Now they are pairing with the wildly talented Kat Beilfuss of KatBlu Art & Design Studio to create a new line of couture wedding and special occasion papers. The combined efforts of Kat’s mad design skills and Paper Orchids tech has created something very new and exciting.

In addition to the cupcake wrappers, Paper Orchid carries a complete line of imprintable invitation suites and some very cool filigree favor boxes.

Inspiration

Sunday found me at the Monogram Shoppe having a meet and greet with the brides of Fort Wayne, IN. It was a delight to be able to talk to these woman one on one and dig a bit into where they were having difficulty planning.

I had noticed at my seminar on Saturday at the bridal show that one of the biggest things standing in the way of many brides getting from vision to completion was a theme. I have talked about it here and here and even here so it came as no big surprise.

On Sunday I had a chance to take one particular couple by the hand so to speak and walk them through the process.

Lisa and Nick are planning a summer wedding on an unbelievably tight budget. When I asked them what their theme was Lisa pulled two skeins of embroidery floss from her purse and said “Well these are our colors.” Argh.

Digging deeper I found that they wanted a casual garden feel to their day, very summery and natural. Looking at the colors and hearing what they said I immediately thought of Provence. That lends itself well to the rustic outdoor feel they were going for and the colors just scream France. They had already settled on French blue linens and 16’ long banquet tables. Next they said they were thinking of using floating candles in yellow! My mind flooded with images of too many poorly done church basements, so I started offering alternate ideas.

Thinking “Provence”, I suggested that they hit Target or World Bazaar and get a handful of inexpensive square white plates in a variety of sizes. Next, it’s off to the local produce broker or warehouse club to buy a bunch of lemons and blueberries. Mound the fruit on the white plates with a few sprigs of thyme or rosemary tucked in as the main centerpiece elements, maybe 3 per table. Add some white baskets of rustic artisan breads, small bottles of olive oil, little dishes of imported black olives and simple white pillar candles to form a runner down these long tables.

Once Lisa and Nick got the idea the whole event began to come into focus for them. What might have been the same old worship hall reception just lept into fabulous with out much more effort or expense; all because they focused on a theme instead of just colors. Oh, I hope they think to serve tall slender glasses of lemonade with blueberries in it. How cute.

Backstage at the Runway

You just never know where I’ll turn up. This weekend had me speaking in Fort Wayne, IN to a group of wedding professional on marketing and then the next day to the brides about wedding planning courtesy of The Wedding Connection.

I’ll do just about anything to better understand every aspect of the wedding industry. While I was in Fort Wayne I had the opportunity to do another new thing. This time it found me dressing the models for a runway show. I have sat on the front row for my share of these things from New York to Harrogate but I have never been back stage to experience the madness first hand. On your wedding day you will probably take 15 minutes or more to get your wedding gown on; between getting it laced or buttoned and putting on you jewelry and veil it’s a bit of work. Well we did it six times in just under 20 minutes yesterday! It was bridal carnage. There were gowns flying and veils everywhere. I’m just glad I wasn’t the one coordinating it. Dawn Quick owner of The Wedding Place in Fort Wayne did a wonderful job of herding cats to produce this runway show. Not an easy task at best but add a gaggle of flower girl models and that clearly put Dawn in the running for sainthood. Also big thanks to our bridal model, Tomi, for overlooking the obvious handicap of having a novice (me) dressing her.

Today has me doing a meet and greet at the Monogram Shoppe, a full service stationary store. Good thing there is extra room in my suitcase. I do have a thing for beautiful papers. I mean come on; why else would I have 6 different sets of personal stationary. ;-)

Best Wedding Planning Tool EVER

As you can imagine, anytime anyone releases a new website for brides I get pinged. Most of them are just more of the same, but I got a real WOW in my inbox this morning.

Clio pinged me about the new site she is a part of, Muse. Right now Muse has three parts: Budget tool, Task manager and Idea folder. I’m not a big fan of budget tools but the other two just blew me away!

On the Task manager you have 3 pages, Do Now, Do Later and Done. Each is divided into the standard categories like ceremony, beauty photography, etc. It couldn’t be easier to add and delete tasks or move them from list to list. It all stays organized and neat. Love it. No more making lists, losing them and having to recreate them. I wish it was available for my grocery lists.

The idea folder is just as easy to use. You can ‘Capture an idea’ again in the standard categories and then keep it front and center or move it to the back burner to revisit later.

Clio tells me that they have even more tools in the works as the site keeps growing. If they are any where as cool and useful as what they have now Muse may quickly become the hottest planning site on the web.

Thanks Clio for 'getting it'.

Fabulous Silk Sashes with a Heart

I have run across something that has captured my heart in a way that rarely happens.

This was first pointed out to me by Danielle on her blog Oh Happy! Go on take a minute to read her write up. All of us involved in weddings whether the bride or the professional are blessed in so many ways and yet sometimes we struggle finding a way to give back. Well here you go…

Rebecca at The White Aisle travels extensively during her slow months. On a recent trip to Cambodia she became involved with a project to help the young women, children really, that have been sold into the sex trade. Some of these girls had been sold by their parents as young as five, FIVE! The simple economics of life in Cambodia have kept them enslaved. Even if they were free to leave the brothels they are dependant on them as their sole source of food and shelter. Danielle writes” The most powerful way to make an impact on these childrens' futures is to give them an alternative way to become self-sufficient. Rebecca is teaming up with an organization in Phnom Penh- which offers children the ability to come to their vocational training facilities to work during the day. Additionally, all workers are encouraged to sleep at the neighboring housing. Over time, this method has proved to be rather successful in generating independent and reformed women ready to re-enter "normal" society.”

So where do you come in? Take a look at the beautiful silk accessories in the images above. Rebecca has worked with these girls to help them create gorgeous sashes, ring pillows and fabric flowers using the native Khmer silks from their region. She will begin offering these December 1 on her site The White Aisle with ALL profits going back to the project. The more this grows the more children can be rescued. So far 23 girls have been able to leave the sex trade completely and move on to independent rewarding lives.

To all my friends out there: I sincerely hope that this has touched you as much as it has me. Look around you, look at your flower girl and tell me this isn’t a most worthy cause.

Finding Inspiration III

I thought that I would leave you with some inspiration for the long holiday weekend. The images above are all from my favorite floral designer, Vicki Sanders. She and her team at Branching Out are quickly becoming the most innovative and sought after event designers/florist in the South. Yes that is her on the bottom row.

A while back I clued you in on a wonderful rental company that I always seek out when I am in need of inspiration, Fabu. I also gave Sarah a whack of the pencil for not having a great website so I didn’t have to fight the traffic to get to her shop. Well great news, Sarah’s website now has an extensive catalog of fabulous thing that you can peruse to your hearts content. Not only that, but she has opened a new show room for the event rental side of her business to make viewing easier. Incidentally, if you like Sarah’s taste as much as I do you should check out her gift shop. With the holidays just around the corner I know I’ll be there at least a few times to find the perfect little gifts for everyone on my list.

Virtual Wedding Planner Tool

By and large I am not a fan of big box stores; I much prefer the hands on customer service at a local salon. Having said that, one of them has done something right.

David’s Bridal has launched a virtual wedding planning tool that I can see as the cause of countless hours spent online. Dress Your Wedding allows you to play around with all the many different aspects of the look of your wedding. You can customize the coloring and physical features of the bride and groom and all the members of the wedding party. Add a bridesmaid, delete a groomsman, shrink one to a ring bearer. Mad at the groom, insert his best friend, is after all a virtual world. What fun.

That is just the beginning of the fun. As you would expect you can play dress up to your hearts content (as long as you want something from David’s). Like the style of the dress but not the color? Change it.

Keep going and you can just move your wedding if you don’t like the location. They offer a variety of different ‘location’ backgrounds from which to choose. Of course you can also manipulate a variety of little things like flower color and such.

I wouldn’t say that this is the planning tool to end all others I’m just saying it is a heck of a lot of fun and even if you aren't planning on shopping at David's you can still play with their toys. Hehe

Enzoani

Oh this collection just blew me away! If you love
cutting edge styles and wonderful fabrics then you
have to give Enzoani a look.As you can see from the images, the bead work in this collection is not your basic “beads on embroidery ; it ranges from beautiful flowers to large stones to light tracings on tulle over a layer of lace. Ahhhhhhh. The pictures say more than words ever could. Just wait until this collection hits the salons.

J. Jennings Bridal Collection

I stumbled upon the fabulous designer Jason Jennings, J. Jennings Bridal Collection on Monday. Jason’s range is full of interesting lines and gorgeous fabrics. One of the hallmarks of his Spring/Summer 08 collection is bead encrusted cutwork lace. The gown Jason is holding is a good example, you get a taste of it in the straps but those straps fan out across the shoulders accentuating the cowl draped back. His gowns are not for the faint of heart, but if you have the figure to pull them of they are truly stunning. Oh, and Jason is a darling.

J. Jenning Bridal Collection is available in the U.S. at Kleinfelds.